Science Fiction? Nanomedicine for Brain Tumors

The majority of drugs and treatments we use now to fight disease and ailments operate on a cellular level. For example, in the case of brain tumors, radiation and chemotherapy aim to destroy the cells causing the cancer. But what if the approach can be even more fine-tuned and precise, to the point where treatments can be delivered on a molecular or even atomic level?

Though “nanomedicine” may seem like a futuristic term, it’s actually already here. The National Institutes of Health’s Nanomedicine Initiative, formed in 2005, has brought together a group of biologists, doctors, mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists who are currently working to gather information and better understand the “intricate operations of molecular structures, processes and networks inside living cells,” with the ultimate goal of enabling doctors and scientists to treat malfunctioning cells on a molecular scale.

To put things in perspective, a nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, and can’t be seen with a conventional microscope. It’s been said that a DNA double helix has a diameter of about 2 nm. Most of what is dealt with in nanotechnology and nanomedicine falls within 1 to 100 nanometers.

The emergence of nanomedicine as a viable approach to control disease is already making an impact on brain cancer research. In 2001, scientists at Cedars-Sinai discovered that a certain protein played a significant role in a brain tumor’s ability to build new blood vessels and grow. The team then set out to discover how to block this protein from forming.

This year, thanks to developments made in nanomedicine, we may have found a way. The scientists recently engineered a “nanobioconjugate” drug that is promising on several fronts. First, it has been shown to be able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, a lining of tightly packed cells that covers the brain capillaries (something many cancer drugs aren’t able to do as effectively). Second, once it has broken through the barrier, the drug has been shown to enter inside each individual cell that makes up the tumor – this is where the nanotechnology comes into play. And third, once inside, it may be able to perform multiple “tasks,” including blocking those proteins that help new blood vessels – and the tumor – grow.

Clinical trials of the nanobioconjugate drug are anticipated, and I am confident that we will be seeing more research in nanomedicine and the application of nanotechnology to improving human health in the near future. While it is still very much a new field, it’s certainly not science fiction, and has great potential to one day become a part of our regular medical vocabulary.